Post Tagged with: "amiami"

My package from AmiAmiarrived on Tuesday! So I’m gonna blog about it. Before I ordered from AmiAmi, I was skeptical about the service, especially EMS shipping, and I tried googling but I could not find any blog posts that reviews the details of the package arrival from AmiAmi. I did find one but it was a bad blog post about the package being sent to a different person. -_____- So I hope this can be a guide or information to those first timers who are wondering about AmiAmi or EMS Japan Post.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had a bad experience with EMS when my package arrived all torn, and squished. I was wrong. Turns out that was CHINA POST EMS and AmiAmi uses JAPAN POST EMS (duh, they’re in Japan). Clearly Japan post is much better. More details below.

After you order and pay up to AmiAmi and selected EMS shipping, you can track your parcel from Japan Post website. It was a bit confusing however on that inward and outward office of exchange thing. I’ve only used DHL for express shipping when I ordered stuff from Amazon and DHL tracking system is easier to understand (and much more detailed & instantly updated) as mentioned in my old posts from NOVEMBER 2006 and DECEMBER 2006.. while EMS updates a little bit while later. I didn’t even know that my package was out for delivery until a day later, lol.

Once it reaches Malaysia, it’ll be handled by our local domestic express post, Pos Laju. So the difference is now you can track using Japan Post AND Pos Laju. Again, everything was updated a bit later… but it does mention the item is being delivered and who received it. The guy called my phone, so I told him my mom would go out to pick it up (since I just got up) so he didn’t need any signature from my mom. Hehe, they wrote my name as Liana 😛 For a minute I was like OMG WHO THE FUCK IS LIANA?! And then I realized that’s part of my middle name -____- Blonde moment. I’m just not used to it cuz in my whole life, that was the first time somebody used half of my middle name instead of my first name.

All photos were taken using my BB Storm 2 without sufficient lighting, hence why they’re blurry.

My package arrived in about 4 days. It was shipped on Friday evening (received the notice at about 6 pm-ish) and received it at 10.30 am on Tuesday so roughly 4 days. Not bad.

The plastic was a BITCH to tear! Seriously. Not even with knife! It was way too thick. And the glue was so strong that I had a hard time ripping it off to open the box. But I’m glad the box arrived perfectly. Well a bit dented aｔ the corners but that’s normal. Glad they listened to me and taped the ‘FRAGILE‘ notice at the side.

And glad the customs didn’t try to open the box.

Of course, the first ‘person’ to be extremely hyper and excited would be my kitty, Jojo aka Nana. She can NEVER see a box/parcel. She always get to excited. If you look at my NOVEMBER 2006 & DECEMBER 2006 posts, you can also see how excited Jojo was. She’s my little helper.

After I managed to open the box, she quickly got inside the box trying to tear/take out the papers inside. She was really working as hard as she could to tear it.

And I mean REALLY trying hard to take the papers out. AmiAmi didn’t have any air bag thing on top of my stuff, they just have lots of layers of papers. I’m okay with that since the box is thick and sturdy enough.

Jojo didn’t manage to take out about 5-10 layers of papers, and she got exhausted. So she gave up and got frustrated. She’s now thinking what other ways could she do to rip it all out. So I took her out and took the papers out myself. So much for my little helper.

Tada! I’m happy to see my stuff in good condition. The DS game box is in those protective bubble that you can pop 😀 My Rinko case has no bubble protection but I’m surprised at how thick the box is.

And Jojo goes “My job here is done!“… yeah right, as if she was any help, hehe.

Ahh.. my own virtual girlfriend simulation 😀 I have just thrown myself to the loserville to join with those ‘ronery’ (lonely) otaku/old men/women with their virtual gf. Hehe. It’s SO MUCH better now because the game doesn’t keep refreshing itself, and I don’t keep getting the annoying ‘save your game‘ message everytime I do an activity. Being ‘JACK SPARROW‘ sucks but can’t help it. I’m a poor person.

Like I said, I’m surprised the box is very thick. The images look nice 😀 The papers feel smooth and silky, not a regular thin paper. It’s a HORI product, so you can expect quality. If it wasn’t for the 60% off, I wouldn’t get this casing. Too expensive.

あぁぁぁぁ｡｡｡ 小早川凛子。。。リンコーチャン！私の恋人です～！あっ！違う！違う！私の友達です。
ラブプラス＋大好き！

I’m happy that the protective case is not as thin as my old cheap case that I bought for my DS Lite. But changing the picture is a bitch. I’m scared of breaking any small part or hinges since my fingers are prone to do so, so having a hard time opening the case and changing the photo. But I’m changing them once a month anyway.

Ok I’m done. My back hurts now from sitting for too long writing this. I wish I have my own spa to relax in. At least a bathtub with candles around, and aromatherapy oils.. having bubble bath in a jacuzzi just to relax my muscles.. *sighs*

I decided to suck it up, stop bitching like a failed pirate and bought the damn ‘Love Plus+‘ game yesterday from AmiAmi.

If you read my long review on Love Plus+, I mentioned about the ultimate anti-piracy that Konami implemented. Unfortunately even with patching, the game still have an issue if you’re using AceKard 2i running on Akaio 1.7.1. Also unfortunately, I’m aware that Akaio team is working on version 1.8, but their last update was in July… and I don’t think anyone is aware about the Love Plus+ problem in real time mode or care about it so I decided to buy the damn game.

Play-Asia is still having the ‘back ordered‘ status and I have no idea when they’re gonna restock so what the hell, not gonna wait for P-A to restock. I actually prefer buying from P-A because I’ve bought Guitar Hero DS game from them before and DSi Hori protective screen filter using the free shipping and they arrived in great condition in only 2 weeks. If I wasn’t desperate for the game, I’d take advantage of free shipping…however P-A also ships using FedEx and it only cost USD$10 (around RM30 which is acceptable). It’s cheaper & faster than EMS Speedpost. FedEx takes about 1-3 days, and EMS takes 2-4 days but cost like USD$15 and it’s local hong kong express post.. not sure why it’s more expensive? Plus when it reaches Malaysia it’ll be handled by our local post office which is another thing.

I had my first parcel from EMS all torn, squished, scrunched up and just plain bad. I don’t know whether it was EMS fault or our local post office.. but then again, I received my other stuff perfectly at the local post office so I don’t know who was being careless…

So, disappointed, I tried searching for other place but I can’t find a place that sells the game 🙁 Someone suggested ‘AmiAmi‘, which is a hobby & character shop in Japan. It’s great that their price is almost the same as P-A except a buck cheaper (10% off) however they only have EMS post for faster shipment! Kinda skeptical to use EMS now since first impression wasn’t good… Their normal post would probably take a month to reach here, wtf. Since I couldn’t find any other place… and amazon JP is all in Japanese 🙁 and amazon US sells the game DOUBLE the price.. so I decided to order from AmiAmi and not care about EMS shipment. And guess what!

I need a new casing for my Nintendo DSi since the silicone skin is falling apart. It’s so annoying to play a game with the silicone skin hanging because it won’t fit the DSi anymore (all stretched up). At first I wanted a new pink silicone skin so it’ll match my Dsi but then I saw the Rinko casing at P-A and guess what? It’s friggin out of stock/sold out! GAH!

Fortunately!

AmiAmi is having a friggin 60% off on the Rinko’s case! Wtf! Perfect timing! So now it only cost 850 yen (USD$10) instead of retail price of around 2,480 yen(USD$30)! There was only 4 left in stock. You know, for most online sellers in the US, they’re selling it double the price wtf. The highest I’ve seen so far is at the ridiculous price of USD$70! Are you crazy? USD$70 for a simple transparent casing with 13 papers that have Rinko image on it?? Are you kidding me?? That’s around RM217 after converting to Malaysian ringgit… omg.. normal casings here are usually around RM10 to RM30 bucks depending on quality. Really, wtf! If I add about RM200 more I could buy a new DS Lite console… crazy.

So I decided I’d buy the game and the casing. Now, here’s another story. This is my first time placing an order from AmiAmi, and from Japan so I don’t know how they do things. After placing an order, I have to wait for them to quote the shipping price. I’m glad that the next day they told me the cost of shipping is only 1000 yen (USD$12 or RM37). It makes the total cost 5900 yen (USD$72) or around RM225. The price is ok considering I’m buying original DS game plus a cheap discounted casing with express shipping. The cost of a DS game sold in Malaysia is really expensive to us…which explains why I had to resort to piracy. I only buy original stuff if I extremely like the product. There’s no way I’m ever gonna spend so much on shovelwares (crap DS games).

Usually when I buy stuff, they’d have the online payment system which is easy but for AmiAmi, you have to pay by paypal according to their instruction. First time paying for goods using paypal so I didn’t know you can’t use any balance in your paypal account but need credit/debit card instead. Gah. Only card in my paypal account is my debit card, which has no savings account.. so only way to put money in, is to go to the bank and fill up the deposit slip. It was already late so only choice was mom’s debit card.

I tried transferring my money to my mom’s account (3rd party account) for the first time. Epic fail.

Because little did I know, for my bank, if you transfer funds online before 12 noon, the money will be processed the next day. GAH. No wonder the money wasn’t appearing in my mom’s account. So I went shopping, then at night went to my mom’s bank to deposit more cash to my mom’s account. Fuck. Epic fail again. There were 3 machines, and 2 couldn’t process my mom’s card somehow, and I wasted like an hour queuing up! Thankfully, one machine worked but it could only accept RM200 instead of Rm250..wtf. I need to pay Rm225 damnit! But at least later, paying AmiAmi went smoothly.

They shipped it today! Got the email from them in the morning confirming my payment and by evening they confirmed the shipping. So I hope to get my stuff by Monday or Tuesday. I just hope it won’t get squished or broken 🙁

So that was my lame story of spending my ‘first yen’ at a Japanese online shop. But screw it, I haven’t bought anything for myself in like 2 years.. so what the hell.

My stuff is in Tokyo right now 😀 Oh how I miss blogging about my excitement of getting a parcel like how I used to. If you knew me, you’d know I’m the kind of person who gets extremely excited when a parcel of stuff arrives 🙁 Pathetic right? Speaking of parcels, I haven’t bought any TV Series boxset DVD from Amazon in a looooong time. Last time time I ordered was around Christmas in 2006. Wow, so long ago. But then again, back then I had my ex to pay it for me (as xmas gift) so nevermind. I’m thinking this year I want to get one or two boxsets from Amazon, but we’ll see how my budget goes.. I’m thinking of buying a Mac as Christmas gift for myself, so have to save up. I need a mac to do editing. I’m considering it an investment for a small business opportunity (aka freelance editing job). I might need it if I get a job next year too. But I want more Home Improvement & Golden Girls DVD!

Anyways, Claudia left yesterday and is in London now. Jealous. 🙁 Now she can ogle at cute British guys and I’m still stuck here. In Jan, another friend of mine is leaving to UK too.. Oh well.

On another different note, ADAM LAMBERT WILL BE IN MALAYSIA IN A FEW DAYS!!! If I had money, I would’ve bought his most expensive ticket and go crazy like a mad psycho fan! I would try to win tickets hoping to be lucky like I was with Good Charlotte’s concert in Singapore in 2005.. but I don’t want to drive back to KL and enjoy the concert alone….

PS: These charms are soooooo cute aren’t they??? To be released late November. Since I’m a sucker for cute things, I want them.. it’s very cheap currently at AmiAmi (USD$14) compared to YesAsia (USD$27). To get them or not… hmmm.